The original kaleidoscope design is attributed to Sir David Brewster in 1815. Since then the art is replete with refinements on the original Brewster design including numerous patents on how to provide images, on how to illustrate the images and how to look at the images.
Mobius (Ueber das Gesetz der Symmetrie der Kristalle und die Anwendung dieses Gesetzes auf die Eintheilung der Kristalle in Systeme, Journal fur die reins un abgewandte Mathematik, 43, 365-374 (1852); or Gesammelte Werke, 2, 349-360, 1886), theoretically describes polyhedral kaleidoscopes produced by three mirrors in the form of a triangular pyramid.
It is well known that cubes with inward reflecting mirrors provide an infinite virtual image with triaxial symmetry by the arrangement of their six mirrors. This invention produces a similar effect with only four mirrors.
Michael Burt, in Israeli patent No. 47517, dated Jun. 19, 1975 discloses three tetrahedra formed by inside reflecting mirrors, which are referred to as spatial kaleidoscopes. The three tetrahedra are theoretically described by H. S. M. Coxeter in Regular polytopes, Macmillan Company, 1963. However, neither Burr nor Coxeter considered the problems of providing an image, illuminating it and how to look inside it.
More recently, Zsabo and Gulder (in German Patent No. DE 3118735, dated Dec. 2, 1982) discloses a kaleidoscope "consisting of three trapesium-shaped internally reflecting panels arranged to form an equilateral three-sided truncated pyramid". The image produced by Zsabo and Gulder's kaleidoscope comes from the truncated end and is a convex sphere.
In the art of kaleidoscope design, there is a trend to provide binocular kaleidoscopes able to enhance 3-dimensional images. U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,004, of J. K. Briskin of Apr. 11, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,870, of Jun. 4, 1991 of S. J. Gray, disclose binocular kaleidoscopes which add optical aids to the classic designs. This invention can provide binocular kaleidoscopes producing 3-dimensional images without optical aids simply by looking through any of its windows when it is large enough.
S. Huang, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,865 of Oct. 8, 1991, describes multilocular kaleidoscopes consisting of two semispherical shells connected with seven Brewster's prism-shaped kaleidoscopes. This invention provides a multiocular kaleidoscope which differs in arrangement.